Eugenics was a pseudoscience that attempted to use genetics to justify delusions of racial superiority or to promote genetic improvements in human populations. Eugenics (from the Greek for "good breeding") grew together with the young science of genetics. But while genetics has grown into a major science, the underpinning of evolutionary biology, eugenics has fallen into disrepute in the popular mind as well as among scientists, both for its injustice and its erroneous science.

Theories of "good breeding" predated both genetics and evolutionary theory. For many centuries, some societies viewed "purity of blood" as an important virtue, especially among its elite classes, who eschewed interbreeding with people of lower estate. Royal and aristocratic families bred only among themselves, and sometimes cousin marriages were common, although few went as far as the sibling marriages of the Pharaohs. Scientists now understand that interbreeding of close relatives results in inbreeding depression, the expression of numerous detrimental genes that would have otherwise remained hidden. Some scholars suggest that the illnesses both of Charles Darwin and his daughter Annie resulted from the close inbreeding between the Darwin and Wedgwood families (Charles Darwin's father and mother were cousins, and he married his cousin).

Not everyone in previous centuries shared the opinion that royal and aristocratic blood needed to be kept pure. The embarrassing problems of royal families were an open secret in late medieval and early modern Europe. The infamous "Hapsburg lip" of one of Europe's royal families was so striking that even flattering portraits could not hide it, and it passed through 23 generations. The Hapsburg Charles II of Spain could not even chew his own food, because of it, and was in addition a complete invalid and incapable of having children. Several British kings were insane for reasons now known to be genetic. George III (who lost the American colonies) had periodic bouts of madness variously attributed to genetic diseases porphyria or alkaptonuria. Thomas Jefferson, when visiting Europe, became convinced that something was biologically wrong with the European royals, which reinforced his belief that democracy was necessary not only for justice but even for physical health. . .

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